More Awesome Than You!

I've become somewhat annoyed by this, and if you've ever played some 10 to 20 sim houses, you'll probably know what I'm talking about right away. In TS1, the server didn't bother going through the motions of serving food. If you wanted food, you served yourself. No muss, no fuss.

I realize that serving food is a bit more realistic and it does make the whole process a bit more efficient, but that's only if you have either low traffic situations and/or a preference for small tables rather than the larger ones (which use up more space).

I'd also like to mention that this related hack doesn't work:

http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=24048

(Squinge seems to have a knack for non-awesome hacks.)

Yes, it's more realistic, but I hate how often I end up with unused served food.
As much as I really wanted to vote for bananas...."no" gets the vote.

Much like ElfPuddle,

I really wanted to vote for no...."bananas" gets the vote.

But really, No is the best answer.  Food now, damn it!  Feed the Childrens!

This is why we have Inventory. Stashing surplus food reduces the grocery bill and allows children and adult sims with low cooking skills to eat well (or at all).

The problem with the detection algorithm is that it just goes by the number of Sims in the house, ignoring if they are hungry or not.  It'd be slightly better if it only took into account close, controllable, or hungry sims (these would probably require more checks though).

The less the "AI" does, the better.

The game also serves ghosts if they are out and about, which is really annoying.  :( I would be happy with at least a fix for this.

This is something I'd really like, especially if it was bundled in with a smart-serve type of hack that takes into account the number of Sims in the house, as well as did some of the other things mentioned in this thread (no serving ghosts for instance) so if anyone made this it would be awesome. :)

Very true. However, I would rather stick the entire platter in the inventory than each individual plate. The former involves less clicking and I'm lazy.

I think the food server should place the platter on the counter and serve him/herself if they are hungry.  If they aren't hungry, they should just set it down and leave it for those who are.

If you put the romantic candles on the tables, the dinner is not served. Someone here told me this simple fix and I've found it useful.

ETA: Wow 1999 posts - better make sure the next one is meaningful!

If you put anything on the table, they won't serve the plates.  I like putting the napkin holders from NL, or a small flower vase.  Date roses or TJ's casual romance adjust as a small plant will work too.

It helps if you "make many" the food instead. For some reason, in Maxisland, "many" means "one, but put it in the inventory".

Dizzy, I really like what you did with your smart serve mod. I hope you'll get around to updating it one day.
I often let children serve the food since they do not serve, just drop the full platter on a counter.

Never mind ghosts - they were at least Sims once.  They serve the robots too!  That really, really annoys me!

Well not exactly - you got the annoying logjam around the counter instead.  Remember how every sim in the house tried to take a plate of food from one counter at the same time in your tiny kitchen?  You had to place a counter for them to put the food on very carefully with at least 2 sides free and several exits from the room.

Don't you think whether they serve should depend on personality? 
Slobby, grouchy sims shouldn't serve food, but nice, neat sims should.

The other aspect I think needs fixing is the distance they trek to serve food.  After they've filled the dining room table, the real annoyance is the trek down the garden to serve food for the ghosts and the robots on the table meant for BBQs by the pool.

I'm never sure what the hoo-hah is about concerning the price of food. I generally find that my sims have too much money so food wastage ain't a problem. What I'd like to see more would be a "clear all food dishes" option rather have to try to guess which of the six plates won't get cleared or to have to run after the pesky li'l blighters to get them to clear away the soon to be humming with aerial members of the insecta class plates that went uneaten ... and why do they have to put serving plates on the floor when they'll willing trek to Tau Ceti IV on (mindless) impulse power just to deposit a coffee cup on a coffee table (assuming they are not subject to the awesomeness of JMP's mind control)?

PS Come to think of it ... how come a sim can carry six servings, six plates and a serving platter but only five dirty plates. Seems fishy to me ...

I just don't like wasted food - my mum was a teacher during the war and you just did not waste food.  Some foods were still rationed when I was very young.  Apart from the shortage issues, I think she took it as a personal insult if you didn't eat the food she put so much time and effort into making.  She used to talk about "starving children in Africa" as well.

Getting away from childhood indoctrination, it's the waste of time preparing and buying food that I resent.  If you make a group meal for 2 sims, it should last them 3 meals without them having to spend time cooking and serving again.  Never mind delaying the time until they have to order food and shuffe around the porch and garden for hours trying to greet the delivery man.

Geez, cw. It's not real food. Seriously though I've complained before that the serve meal option should ask how many to cook for. My mum grew up in the war and she also hates food wastage and instilled the same values on me. However, leftovers can often be deeply unappealing ... if not a health hazard and I see no reason to inflict that on my sims regardless of the fact that they never, ever get bored.

One of the Seasons previews implied that we will be able to put leftovers back in the fridge for their food value.

I hope keeping leftovers is automatic, then. I am not sure I want to ride herd on the robot and baby sitters to get them to put the 15th platter of jello, served today alone, back in the fridge. LOL

I have one business run on a meter, that has a buffet table on the lot. Regardless of the "never-ending buffet" always available, the robot still insists on serving each and every logged in guest whenever one guest on the lot gets minorly hungry. The huge waste of food was literally keeping my business in the red.

My solution was to remove the frig. Everyone was forced to eat from the buffet, and suddenly my business started making money hand over fist.

In the latest chat they said the left-over food is "invincible" and I take it that means it doesn't spoil once in the frig. I wonder if, once food is put back in the frig, the next person to take out food must eat the leftovers before making more food ...

Maybe, but I'm incredibly miserly, and also, green buzzing fly-filled plates is unpleasant. Plus I'm a miser and the idea of wasting anything (except other people) causes me physical pain. There's a REASON I have a giant hoard of things I won't throw out, y'know.

Same. Although my mine didn't talk about starving children in Africa, nor was effort spent on making food. Instead I was told that if we ran out of food because I wasted it, they'd have to kill and eat me. This, combined with the inherited tendencies, has caused me to be the miserly bastard I am today. The only thing I waste is people.

Ditto. This was my favorite part of the hack, that children were able to cook for themselves. More realistic then the way it's set up in the game. After all, most children can make themselves a sandwich/bowl of cereal/mac & cheese.

I personally liked the autonomous lock on the fridges that came with smart-serve. :)

I still have to do that anyway, so I don't see the point.  :P

What I've been doing to keep this relatively sane is to seal the kitchen with Autonomy Denying APO, and then whatever happens, happens. It would be nice if the server was a little smarter, but that is a very difficult hack to do (especially if you make it compatible with every EP).

I have a 'no autonomous cooking' hack as well as a 'no servo chores' hack. These alone have saved much food for my sims and much sanity for me. Still, I'd like a smarter food-serving hack, because the current AI for serving and cleaning up meals is a bit stupid, and I agree with what others have mentioned, that there should be checks for how many hungry sims there are on a given lot, and food should only be served to them (not ghosts, servos, maids, and gardeners).

 :-\ I'm pretty sure my sim served food with a date bouquet on the table...  :-\ I would check on it, only that my pc crashed and I forgot to save so I'm back to square one.

I'll test that in my game when I start playing again... I would like the serving part to be fixed since I think it looks nice when playing my "perfect families". Maybe Dizz would liek to make two versions or give you the option for no serving at all and a fixed version of the serving?

It should only check for hungry sims on a lot. It also annoyes me that the sim who's serving sits down immediately and eat. It's ok if they're cooking for themselves but when serving it's not that useful when if the actual sim isn't hungry or the bar is almost full.

Greets,
Ali

 ;D ;D ;D

I believe that food will be served if there is a lamp on the table (e.g. the romance candles from NL), but not if there is a scuplture (e.g. the napkin holder).

If you have a table that is more than one tile, you have to put something in each tile or the sim will still serve on the part of the table that is not covered.

Where is the Boobies option? I don't know how to vote without the Boobies option available!

But actually I voted that they should only serve if they are not that hungry. If their hunger is really low then they need to put the plate on the counter and get their one serving and go eat.

I do like the idea of having their likelihood of serving be related to their personality. I can't see a grouchy slob serving individual plates to everyone on the lot. You should be happy that she cooked anything at all! Get your own plate - I'm eating!

(oops... sorry... I think was channeling grouchy sims again ;) )

Maybe the best solution would be drop the serving plate on the counter and let people get their plate from it (it should be the "call for meal" option, but I'm not sure) instead of "wait for food" (which would be another waste of time in this case).

So far I've only made a mod for me which allows serving tasks only in the same room. Not a great solution, but at least in the meantime they stop serving when the kitchen table placeholders are full. It's not tested at full, but if anybody wants to try, it can lessen the annoyance a bit (attached).

I agree that the serving tasks need a way better - and full - tweak. Maybe the serving in community lots (i.e. nightlife) and at home are different? If playable sims would serve meal in the same way NPC servers do, it would be at least a time saver.

I hate the Walk Away that always always happens when the whole horde of guests and family members comes swooping down to the table like vultures when they sense food is available now. Everyone sits down and someone just can't wait for the server to go past and so the server gives up and drops the plate on the ground and walks away and I have to pause and drop it on the counter where it should have been to begin with and argh argh argh-

Yeah, I sense I'm not alone in this :P

The Serve Food dance is definitely flawed, but I hated the Sims 1 method of "everyone mob the platter!!!" too. Especially since S1 sims were rather dumber about pathing, I always ended up with traffic jams around the serving counter when everyone in the family tried to Grab a Plate at once.

That's a real teeth-grinder.

I hated that too, but it was funny when they complained about their being nothing left. :P

The sign of a sim on power idle.

If a sim makes many, with nothing else queued up, they will continue to make stuff until the fridge is empty.  As soon as an action is queued up (including power idle), the sim will stop making stuff after that one is in their inventory.

Is that what Pes meant?  I was trying to figure out what he meant by that.  Mine always make many until the fridge is empty or I stop them, or if one of their needs drops to a critical level.

Yep, if a sim is power idling and is sent to make many, they make one, put it in their inventory and then stop.

If a sim has no other actions queued up, they will continue until the fridge runs out of food. 

Oooo, nice tip!  :-* Yet another reason to Power Idle.

Y'know, I'm just speculating, but if more of these handy tips were in the FManual, more people might be tempted into the Pescado Militarized Zone that is Macrotastics...  :P

Nevar! *flees from combat boots*

And yes the whole serving dance annoys the heck out of me, too. Bananas.

Hey Marhis, thanks for doing this mod... it doesn't seem to work though. Possibly a mod conflict, if I can remember to, I'll check with the HCDU later.

But you can "make one" - the platter will be dropped on the counter and remain untouched until *you* decide it's the proper time to eat now. I like this option especially if a sim has a lot of guests, but I don't want him to waste time eating and talking. I send him to skill or something and then "call to meal" (or whatever it's called). No way to get around the serving stuff, but it's done by a guest, so my sim is not involved (nor any other controllables when I keep them occupied).

Nope; the romance candles will keep food from being served, as will the little cube-type candles (can't remember their name).  Bigger candles will keep the sims from being able to use the table at all.

I personally like them serving the meal and calling all sims to eat. I think it's very hospitable and life-like. When I have guests in RL they should eat with us, or at least sit at the table with us, if they're not hungry. They are there to see us anyway, so why not?

 For sims I just chuck the plates into the sims' inventory, if they're busy with something else. Sometimes it's good to have just a one-person meal stashed away, saves time.

Is it possible for Sims to whip food out of inventory autonomously, when they need it most? Could that be hacked?

Also, what exactly does power idle do?

Yep, it's already done as part of macrotastics.

Power idle is also part of macrotastics, it does pretty much what the name implies.  Sims don't actually DO anything (as they would when skillinating, macro>cleaning, whatever), but generally just sit idle and take care of any needs as they arise.  Also good for childcare - platinum grandparents power idling to take care of babies/toddlers via the baby controller.

I really preferred how serving was handled in just the base game. If you cancelled the action as soon as they got the stuff from the stove the sim would just drop it on the counter next to the stove. Now, even if you do that a sim still actually has to perform the serve operation before other sims can take a plate, there isn't a Call to Meal option - at least I haven't ever got it. But, what really drives me the most crazy it if you cancel after they have served 1 plate they dump the platter on the floor!

I tried the decorations on the table but it doesn't work that well in my greek house. I use the tables for homework as well as eating & if there's stuff on the table they won't do homework there.

I'd love to see something that would let them just put the platter on the counter.

In my Greek houses, they eat almost nothing but pizza.  :D

Perhaps it depends on the subhood or the conditions. The Call to Meal option without serving the food first definitively shows up at college, I'm not sure if it has to be a Greek house, though. I use it for parties - make one group meal, invite to party, send guests to hottub, wait until party is a roofraiser, call to meal to lure the guests into the house (so they will use the toilet as well and not leave due to bladder issues). I always have a guest serve the meal, so the host can do something useful instead. Actually, my sims rarely attend their own parties ;D.

The call to meal option turns up on the plate as the sims are serving - you click the plate then.

I hate it when they drop it on the floor too.

Some of the custom foods don't have the Call for Meal option, maybe that's what's going on there.

Sorry, I didn't word that very well. I have gotten the call to mael option, but only after they actually start to serve the food. Cancelling the option at that point causes them to dump the platter on the floor.

What I'd like to be able to do is cancel the serve option just as they are taking the platter from the stove, this used to make them put the platter on the counter. Then they could either grab a plate or call to meal, but this dosn't work anymore. I just really get annoyed when they put the food on the floor. I don't want them serving meals unless i want them to, like when the Head Master comes or if there are guests, but for everyday sim life I just prefer to have the platter on the counter & they grab a plate if they need it.

Seems to work seldom in my game too :/.

I know that in this moment the attention is focused on Season EP, but if anybody is interested... what I was trying to do is to copy some of the Uni dorm cook behavior, who serves meals on counters only if they're in the same room the stove is. I addeed the check "my room" == "stack obj's room", but it seems not enough (it's considered room = lot perhaps?). Maybe distance is involved, but my knowledge is not enough for that. Help anyone?

Also, another thing I was thinking of, add a check on outdoor/indoor: if a sim grills outdoor should serve on tables outdoor only and vice-versa. I'm searching for flags/settings about indoor-outdoor, but no much luck so far. Again, help anyone?

for checking outside use global 0x0222 Is Objects's Room Outside?

Thanks! It's exactly what I was looking for.

I've made, in the meantime some other tries, and maybe I found out why my mod seemed to work only partially (or seldom) in my game: it seems related to the type of food, or - better said - to the type of preparation. Essentially, my mod seems to work as intended only with foods which not require cook (i.e. the stove): i.e. cereals, lunch meat sandwitches, chef salad.
Food processor use seems also not determinant in the result.

In short: if the sim serves meat sandwitches, he will serve only on tables in the same room (if all serving slots on those tables are clogged with dishes, he will only drop the serving plate on the counter and will take a single plate for himself). If the sim will serve any other food which requires stove or grill, instead, will serve in all rooms and tables available as usual.

What I've done is, so far, is modifying the BHAV Serve - Serve Tables (Group 0x7F8834C8 Instance 0x0000201E) here:


in this way:


The operand in bold should means "only in room = true" and it seems so.

Hope this may be useful for someone; now I'm tweaking those operands some more trying to individuate other behavior diffs.

That mod attached below (the old one in previous post is deleted).

Ah.  And wouldn't it be interesting to be YOUR therapist. :-)

That wee datum also shines a none too boastworthy light into many a shady corner. For one thing it proves that Pescado wasn't born an irascible smart-ass. For another it shows that his parents were none too clever, either.

I dunno, it makes logical sense to me. If you run out of food because somebody wasted it all, the logical thing to do is to solve two problems at once by killing and eating the offender. You get food, he stops wasting it. Threats of death by consumption as punishment for misbehavior are pretty common in my family.